Newsela Reading: Medieval Witch Hunts

Read this excerpt from the text:

"Their appearance was all the more strange because between 900 and 1400 the Christian authorities had refused to acknowledge that witches existed, let alone try someone for the crime of being one. This was despite the fact that belief in witches was common in medieval Europe, and in 1258 Pope Alexander IV had to issue a canon to prevent prosecutions."

The word "canon" can be replaced by which of the following words without changing the meaning of the text?

What can be inferred from the following excerpt?

"The data shows that witch-hunts took off only after the Reformation in 1517, following the rapid spread of Protestantism. Leeson and Russ argue that, for the first time in history, the Reformation presented large numbers of Christians with a religious choice: stick with the old church or switch to the new one. 'And when churchgoers have religious choice, churches must compete,' they say."

Read the following sentence from the article. "The new analysis suggests that the witch craze was most intense where Catholic-Protestant rivalry was strongest." Which sentence from the article BEST supports this idea?

How did the Catholic-Protestant rivalry affect the witch trials of early modern Europe?

Read the following excerpt:

"The phenomenon reached its zenith between 1555 and 1650, the years when there was 'peak competition for Christian consumers.' This was evidenced by the Catholic Counter-Reformation, during which Catholic officials pushed back against Protestant successes in converting Catholics to the new ways of worshipping throughout much of Europe."

Which of the following words could NOT replace "zenith" without altering the meaning of the text?

Read the following paragraph from the article. "By around 1650, however, the witch frenzy began its precipitous decline, with prosecutions for witchcraft virtually vanishing by 1700. Leeson and Russ attribute this to the Peace of Westphalia, a series of treaties in 1648, which brought a close to the Thirty Years' War and ended decades of religious warfare in Europe." How does this paragraph reflect the central argument of the article?

Read the following excerpt:

"By around 1650, however, the witch frenzy began its precipitous decline, with prosecutions for witchcraft virtually vanishing by 1700."

Based on the context, the best definition for "precipitous" would be:

Read the following selection from the article. "But the use of terror to impress a message on the population has not abated, they suggest. 'The phenomenon we document — using public trials to advertise superior power along some dimension as a competitive strategy — is much broader than the prosecution of witches in early modern Europe,' Leeson says. 'It appears in different forms elsewhere in the world at least as far back as the ninth century, all the way up to the 20th and Stalin's show trials in the Soviet Union.'" Which of the following conclusions can be drawn from the selection above?

Read the following paragraph:

"But the use of terror to impress a message on the population has not abated, they suggest. 'The phenomenon we document — using public trials to advertise superior power along some dimension as a competitive strategy — is much broader than the prosecution of witches in early modern Europe,' Leeson says. 'It appears in different forms elsewhere in the world at least as far back as the ninth century, all the way up to the 20th and Stalin's show trials in the Soviet Union.'"

The word "abated" could be replaced by which of the following without changing the meaning of the text?

Based on their characterization in this article, which of the following statements would Peter Leeson and Jacob Russ most likely NOT agree with?